Chick's views have been spread worldwide, mostly through the tracts and now online. They have been translated into more than 100 languages.[7] As evidenced from his writings and publications, Chick is an Independent Baptist who follows a premillennialdispensationalist view of the end times. He is a believer in the King James Only movement, which posits that every English translation of the Bible more recent than 1611 promotes heresy or immorality.[8]

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Chick was born in Boyle Heights, California. His family later moved to Alhambra, where Chick was active in the high school drama club.[9] Chick's official biography notes that he was not religious in high school and was in fact avoided by Christian students, who believed "he was the last guy on earth who would ever accept Jesus Christ".[10] After his graduation, he continued his drama education at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theater on a two-year scholarship.[9][10]

In February 1943, Chick was drafted as a private into the U.S. Army.[11] He served for three years in the Pacific theater of World War II, serving in New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines, and Japan.[10] Chick credits his time overseas for inspiring him to translate his tracts into many different languages and said he has "a special burden for missions and missionaries".[10]

After the war, he returned to the Pasadena Playhouse and met his wife while working on a production there. Lola Lynn Priddle (1926–1998), a Canadian immigrant, came from a very religious family, and Chick's official biography describes her as "instrumental in his salvation".[10][12] Priddle and her parents introduced Chick to the Charles E. Fuller radio show, the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, and Chick relates that he was converted while listening to an episode of this show.[10] They married in 1948 and had one child, Carol, who died in 2001.[13] In February 1998, Lola Lynn died, and Chick remarried.[clarification needed][2][9][10]

In a 2005 issue of his company's newsletter, Battle Cry, Chick reported that he had suffered a life-threatening health emergency at some point in the previous two years, between 2003 and 2005. He gave further details of the circumstances: "My flu turned into pneumonia, my blood sugar dropped to 20 (I am diabetic)... I was going into a coma. My wife called 911 and while they were on the way, I had a heart attack. A day or so later I had to undergo a triple bypass."[14]

Very little is known about Chick; he has given only one known professional interview since 1975.[15] The lack of available public information about him has created some speculation that he was a pen name for unnamed author(s) or ghostwriters.[9] Several audio cassettes of his preaching distributed to his subscribers purport to contain his voice. While he has never released a photo of himself for publication, purported photos of Chick have been published by others.[16]

From 1953-1955 Chick drew a single panel cartoon (authored by P. S. Clayton) entitled "Times Have Changed?" which thematically predates both the "B.C." comic strip and The Flintstones animated cartoon. These were syndicated by the Mirror Enterprises Co. in Los Angeles area newspapers.

After converting to Christianity, Chick wanted to evangelize others, but was too shy to talk to people directly about religion.[9] Chick heard from missionary Bob Hammond, who had broadcast in Asia on the Voice of America, that the Communist Party of China had gained significant influence among ordinary Chinese in the 1950s through the distribution of small comic books.[10] Chick also began working with a prison ministry and created a flip chart of illustrations to use with his presentation. He hit upon the idea of creating witnessing tracts, which could be given to people directly or indirectly.[9]

While working for the AstroScience Corporation in El Monte, California, he self-published his first tract, Why No Revival?, with a loan from his credit union in 1960 and wrote his second tract, A Demon's Nightmare, shortly afterward.[10][13] He decided to create more tracts and began "using his kitchen table as an office and art studio."[10] Christian bookstores were reluctant to accept the tracts, but they were popular among missionaries and churches.[10]

Chick Publications also distributes "Chick tracts", small comic tracts with religious messages. Most can be viewed in their entirety on the company's web site. The most popular Chick tract, "This Was Your Life", has been translated into around 100 languages,[7] and many other tracts are available in widely spoken languages such as Arabic,[26] German,[27] Spanish,[28] and Tagalog.[29]

Chick's views have been criticized by some of the groups he targets, including neopagans and Catholic organizations. Wiccan author Kerr Cuhulain describes Chick and his theories as "anti-feminist" and "anti-pagan", notes that a Chick Publications comic book was the source of a Rapid City, South Dakota, police detective's presentation on the history of Satanism given in 1989, and describes him as "easily the least reputable source of reliable information on religious groups".[50]

Many Catholic and Protestant organizations consider Chick to be intensely anti-Catholic, based on his various claims about the Roman Catholic Church.[51] Chick responds to these accusations by saying he is opposed to the Roman Catholic Church as a sociopolitical organization but not to its individual members. On his "Roman Catholicism FAQ", Chick says he began publishing his theories about the Roman Catholic Church because "he loves Catholics and wants them to be saved through faith in Jesus".[52]Catholic Answers calls Chick "savagely anti-Catholic",[53] describes Chick's claims about the Catholic Church as "bizarre"[51] and "often grotesque in their arguments",[54] and calls for the tracts to be pulled from the market and corrected.[51] In the early 1980s, Chick's stance on Catholicism led some Christian bookstores to stop stocking his tracts, and he withdrew from the Christian Booksellers Association after the association considered expelling him.[55]Christianity Today described Jack Chick as an example of "the world of ordinary, nonlearned evangelicals", for whom "atavistic anti-Catholicism remains as colorful and unmistakable as ever".[56] Michael Ian Borer, a sociology professor of Furman University at the time, showed Chick's strong anti-Catholic themes in a 2007 American Sociological Association presentation[57] and in a peer-reviewed article the next year in Religion and American Culture.[58]

^"Over the years, Jack Chick has written some stories that were so hot, that touched such politically incorrect issues, that often people were afraid to pass them out on the streets." Hot Topics at chick.com